At NACL, A Love Letter to a Grandmother Who Helped a Generation Thrive

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This weekend, audiences at NACL Theater will witness an intimate and deeply personal work-in-progress titled Mercedes: Para los Callejones, created by Brooklyn-based artist Modesto “Flako” Jimenez and the ¡Oye! Group. The play, performed primarily in Spanish with English supertitles, is both a tribute and a time capsule — inspired by the grandmother who raised Jimenez in Bushwick after he immigrated from the Dominican Republic.

Through letters, receipts, and other personal mementos, Jimenez uncovered his grandmother’s quiet but powerful legacy — a woman who helped countless Latino families survive and thrive in New York City while staying connected to loved ones back home.

“The matriarch — the one that opened her doors for many generations to ground themselves in America, in North America, in New York City,” Jimenez said.

As Jimenez cared for his grandmother during her battle with dementia, he began uncovering the story that would become Mercedes.

“I kept going into drawers and different boxes and realizing that she never threw anything out — like a true beautiful hoarder,” he said with a laugh. “I found letters from people in the Dominican Republic asking for things and saw how she took care of them. I realized, oh, this woman didn’t just take care of me — she took care of multiple generations even back in the motherland.”

Those discoveries revealed a woman whose small acts of love and resourcefulness rippled across generations.

“She made sure that I had a lock on the bathroom door so I could study my lines and be a performer,” Jimenez said. “People should know that those little tools — that love — gave me space to breathe and become who I am.”

A Matriarch’s Spirit on Stage
Actor Zuleyma Guevara, who portrays Mercedes, said the character felt instantly familiar.

“Flako told me I reminded him of his grandmother,” Guevara said. “When I read the script, it reminded me of my own mother. Immigrants work their asses off — sending money, resources back home — and they never want to be thanked. My mother never wanted to be seen as a savior. She just helped.”

That quiet strength, Guevara said, runs deep in the immigrant experience.

“There’s that element of secrecy — you don’t want to elevate yourself, you just do for your family,” she said. “Mercedes did that. She worked ten jobs, sold Avon and Stanley products, made cakes and ornaments by hand. There was always some capital coming in, but she never bragged. Somehow there was always money hidden in a drawer or a jacket.”

One of the most poignant discoveries, Jimenez said, was finding a receipt his grandmother had kept for the cost of bringing the family to America — right down to the price of passport photos.
“She could barely read,” he said. “But she figured it out. She figured it out through love.”

Language, Memory, and Healing
The play’s bilingual nature was a deliberate choice.

“When she landed here, none of us knew English,” Jimenez said. “So the production respects that — telling it how it was. The Spanish, the English, it’s about sharing tools. This isn’t trauma sharing; it’s about celebrating how we take care of ours.”

Over several years of development, Mercedes has grown into more than a play. Jimenez and his collaborators have hosted workshops at senior centers, worked with caregivers, and even developed a documentary and virtual reality experience tied to the project.

“Caring for yours after they cared for you — that’s a beautiful celebration,” Jimenez said. “It’s about time travel through memory, through dementia, through love.”

Mercedes: Para los Callejones will be presented this Saturday night at NACL Theater in Highland Lake, featuring English supertitles — and, fittingly, a warm bowl of soup after the show.

“Mercedes would’ve appreciated that,” Jimenez said, smiling. “She loved making sure everyone had a bowl of something warm.”

For more information, visit nacl.org.

Image: Modesto “Flako” Jimenez with an image of his grandmother Mercedes. (Credit: NACL).